Study On The Association Between Toll-Like Receptor8Gene Polymorphism And Pulmonary Tuberculosis Susceptibility In Northeast Chinese Han Population

Tuberculosis (TB) is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacteriumtuberculosis (MTB). Although one-third of the world’ population is infected withMTB, only5-10%of infected individuals will develop active pulmonary TB. Themechanisms have not been completely clarified. TB has become one of the highestmortality caused by a single pathogen. China, as a high-incidence TB country,effective control of TB is imperative. Despite environmental factors and otherpathogens play important roles in the pathogenesis of TB, genetic factor, such ashuman immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and diabetes are also associated withTB susceptibility. More and more attention has been paid to the roles of the geneticfactors in the pathogenesis of TB.In the process of research on TB susceptibility genes, people found that individualdifferences in TB susceptibility are mainly determined by host genes. Research on TBsusceptibility has become a hot focus so far. In2008, Davila et al showed in Indonesiaand Russia populations that four polymorphisms in the TLR8(Toll-Like Receptor8)gene, including SNP*3764880, SNP*3761624, SNP*3788935andSNP*3764879, hadassociation with TB susceptibility, especially in males. Because there is similargenetic variation between Indonesia and Chinese populations, further study should beperformed in order to confirm the association of TLR gene polymorphism and TBsusceptibility. Similar study had not yet been reported.In this study, using a case-control method and ligase specific detection techniques,in355cases of control subjects and368cases of pulmonary TB patients in NortheastChinese Han population, four sites of TLR8gene were detected and the relationship between TLR8gene and TB susceptibility was analyzed. The results are as followed.The genotypes of SNP*3764880or SNP*3761624or SNP*3788935of TLR8genewere AA,GG,GA, and CC,GG,GC for SNP*3764879. There was no significantdifference in allele distribution frequency of TLR8gene polymorphism between casesand controls (P＞0.05). In addition, the allele distribution frequency of TLR8genepolymorphism between males and females in case or control group was notstatistically significant (P＞0.05).In summary, there was no correlation between TLR8gene polymorphism and TBsusceptibility in Northeast Chinese Han population. With the development ofmolecular biological techniques and deep research on TB, more study should befurther investigated if TLR8gene polymorphism could influence TB susceptibility inNortheast Chinese Han population. For example, epigenetic research should be doneto elucidate the relationship between TLR8gene and diseases.